RIA Novosti reported that Russian British oil JV TNK-BP has won a tender to buy one of Russia’s last three major unexploited Soviet era oilfields in a deal likely to benefit oil giant Rosneft.

The Federal Subsoil Agency said that the auction was won by TNK-BP’s subsidiary, Samotlorneftegaz which offered the highest price for the Lodochnoye oil deposit located in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in East Siberia. The field has recoverable oil reserves of about 43 million metric tonnes and recoverable gas reserves of around 70 billion cubic meters.

The agency said that largest payment, offered by Samotlorneftegaz amounts to RUB 4.660 billion. The auction’s starting price was set at RUB 3.6 billion. The other bidders included private oil firm Surgutneftegaz oil major Rosneft and Status LLC, a subsidiary of Gazprombank affiliated with energy giant Gazprom.

The Lodochnoye field is close to the Suzun and Tagul oil deposits operated by TNK-BP and the Vankor oil and gas field, the biggest field discovered in Russia in the last 25 years which belongs to Rosneft. Oil from Vankor is exported via the East Siberia Pacific Ocean Pipeline to China.

Mr Igor Plesovskikh head of Agency said that “If we complete the auctions on Imilor, Severo-Rogozhnikovskoye (Shpilman) and Lodochnoye in 2012 we will thus draw the line under the era of the mineral reserve base on oil that was established in Soviet days. Given the current level of geological prospecting activity, there is little hope that new large or even medium-sized deposits will be discovered.”